(Risking My Life) Proposing to Miss Hazel - Chapter 104

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 104

“…Ah.”

I remembered.

‘Felix Shire.’

The family name I heard in my dream was Shire.

“Oh my….”

It was probably just a simple coincidence, but I got goosebumps for no reason.

15 seconds before going to work at the shop, I turned around at the alley entrance.

Since I left 30 minutes earlier than usual today, it should be fine to take a brief detour.

My footsteps stopped in front of Albert’s Bookshop.

Albert knew a lot since he had been around books his whole life.

So whenever I had questions since childhood, I would go straight to him.

“Albert, are you inside?”

Knock knock knock, as soon as I knocked on the shop door, a clear voice came from within.

“Come in.”

Creak, the moment I opened the old wooden door, musty dust whooshed over my face. It seemed he hadn’t ventilated yet today.

“Good… cough, morning, Albert.”

Albert handed me a damp cloth as if he knew I would cough.

“I was organizing books. What brings you here so early in the morning?”

“I have something to ask you.”

Albert clasped his hands behind his back and walked deeper into the bookshelf area. It meant he would do his work while I asked my questions.

“Do you happen to know the Shire Count Family?”

“Shire… what?”

“Shire. S-h-i-r-e.”

Hearing the precise pronunciation, he immediately nodded.

“I know it. All the old folks know that name.”

“Really?”

Albert placed old books on the clean bookshelf he had finished cleaning, and like reciting an encyclopedia, told me everything he knew about the ‘Shire Count Family.’

“They were from the Ancient 7 Families, but they didn’t seem to have much desire for power. They were famous for dedicating themselves only to managing the purification water wells for generations and never leaving their territory. They were so reclusive that they barely had any interactions unless it was with other Ancient 7 Families.”

The Ancient 7 Families.

My mouth fell open at content that seemed like it would only appear in history books.

I think I learned that they were seven families that helped establish the Empire….

They would have been destroyed by now.

15 years ago, like the other Ancient 7 Families, swept up in the civil war.

Today was the first time I learned that the Shire Count Family was included in those 7 families.

“The destruction of the Shire Family was strange though. A family that maintained political neutrality wouldn’t have participated in internal strife, yet they were destroyed as soon as the civil war began. There were rumors that they fell victim to the 2nd Prince who secretly employed dark mages, but who knows. The 2nd Prince died at the hands of the 1st Prince right after that.”

“Ah….”

“In the early days of the civil war, there were even rumors that the Imperial Family deliberately started the war to purge all the powerful nobles. Powerless people like us just trembled, hoping the sparks from the power struggle of those high above wouldn’t reach us.”

Perhaps because Albert conveyed the events from 15 years ago so vividly as if they happened yesterday, the complex content that I would normally have let slip by was deeply embedded in my mind.

And strangely…

The Shire Family felt familiar to me.

It’s hard to explain this sensation in words, but it felt like hearing about someone I knew.

“Shi… re…”

I quietly rolled the name that was both unfamiliar and familiar on my tongue.

A different kind of queasiness from when I was close to Baron spread dully in my chest.

Just having the name under my tongue made bitter water rise repeatedly. It was worse than swallowing strong medicinal herbs.

My mood plummeted rapidly. Like looking at a sky about to pour down torrential rain.

Albert, noticing my darkened expression, asked with a worried voice.

“What’s wrong, Hazel. Are you feeling unwell?”

“No, no… I should get going now, Albert.”

“Come ask again if you have more questions.”

“Yes.”

I tried to pull up the corners of my mouth, but I couldn’t manage a smile.

I hurriedly left the bookshop with a restless heart.

***

“Felix.”

“Yeah.”

“Do you know about the Shire Family?”

During lunch, Felix answered my sudden question with a blank expression.

“No.”

His tone, as if asking what that was and whether it was something to eat, made me burst into laughter.

I bit into the last remaining sausage and spoke as if showing off.

“How can you not know that. It’s one of the Ancient 7 Families.”

Though I didn’t know until this morning either.

Felix’s eyebrows furrowed with displeasure at my sudden display of knowledge. He fired back as if in retaliation.

“Smart Miss Hazel, if you know history so well, please tell me the names of the other six families too.”

“Uh… um…. Can I use the Albert lifeline?”

At my shameless answer, Felix burst into laughter as if he couldn’t help it.

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

“Who did you take after to be so shameless?”

“I take after you, Felix.”

“That’s true. But why did you suddenly ask about that? Is someone from there?”

“Well, something like that.”

We finished our conversation simply and focused on lunch again.

Maybe because I had no appetite today, nothing appealed to me except the sausage bursting with juices.

As I was about to finish my meal by roughly stuffing the bread I was eating into my mouth, Felix found another piece of sausage hiding at the bottom of the stew and pushed it toward my mouth.

“Eat.”

I smiled broadly and quickly ate the sausage. I was the one who ate it, but Felix looked happier.

He tilted his head while looking at the remaining food.

“You’re eating less today. Does the food not taste good?”

“Your food is always delicious, Felix. I just don’t have much appetite. I must be affected by the heat.”

“The candy shop sells frozen fruit. They also sell ones drizzled with sugar syrup, so I’ll buy some. Watch the shop for a moment.”

“It’s okay, buy some tomorrow. Not today.”

Felix, who had half-risen from his chair in an awkward position, narrowed his eyes.

“This is strange….”

“…It is strange.”

“Did something happen on your way to work? You were so energetic until this morning, but now you’re so droopy. If you’re not feeling well, please go home early. I can watch the shop alone…”

I cut off Felix’s increasingly long speech with one stroke. Felix always overreacts when it comes to my affairs.

“I’m not sick. Let’s work together. You skip afternoon shifts three times a week to paint, so I don’t want to rest more.”

“Hazel’s painting is also work…”

“Don’t make me say it twice.”

“…Okay.”

His displeased lips twitched as if spewing out unspoken words.

I dipped the remaining bread deep into the stew and fed it to Felix.

It wasn’t my intention to silence him, but I knew Felix’s habit of reducing his own meal portions when I ate less.

“Still, you did well listening to me.”

“About what?”

“Flipping the sign during lunch break makes me feel more alive. I even have time to zone out while looking at the sunlight.”

Felix, falling for my obvious flattery meant to stimulate his appetite, smiled so widely that his dimples deepened.

Today, his dimples looked so deep that I wanted to poke my finger into them.

The afternoon shift was quiet enough that Felix could handle it alone. This was because the popular Capital goods we’d gotten from the Basar Merchant Guild had sold out completely in the morning.

But that didn’t mean we could just idle around.

General store work was like housework – no matter how hard you worked, it didn’t show, but the moment you let your guard down, it multiplied like summer fruit fly eggs.

Squeak, squeak, squeak.

We habitually wiped glass bottles while I looked at Ssukssuk and Felix looked at my glass bottle.

He muttered in a questioning voice.

“It’s not sparkling…”

I pretended not to hear Felix’s mumbling and subtly changed the subject.

“But it seems Count Cromwell plans to let this matter pass quietly. That’s fortunate, right?”

“Ah, that bastard must be swamped right now.”

“Is it really because his mistress died? You heard the rumors too, Felix.”

“That’s part of it, but he’ll have a proper headache for a while. Bandits are flooding in, the Princes are pressuring him to send troops, and since Gidelo County in the South has fallen, the 13th Prince will soon appear…”

He poured out ominous words as if he’d seen the future, then suddenly shut his mouth.

Eyes like a dog caught misbehaving glanced sideways at my profile.

I was about to properly interrogate my suspicious Felix when—

“Are you… here?”

At that very moment, an unexpected figure appeared in the shop.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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